About what matters and what doesn't. Reflections on life, love, relationships and the world at large

“Anna”chronisms

The world rather the media is conspiring for us to be exposed to a volley of images of Anna Hazare. I log on to Facebook and see Anna Hazare and his tribe, even LinkedIn and the blog world have him splashed around. The television journos seem to be on a roll. They’ve covered each gesture, the minutest facial expression and even run stories on him running in the rain, attributing child-like qualities to him !! If trivialization of social issues is anything to go by, this clearly makes a strong case for it. I am no agnostic and not among the pseudo intellectual doubting Thomases. I am all for activism and taking a stand for a cause as worthy as reducing corruption and red tapism that plagues our country. I agree with quite a few clauses of the Jan Lokpal Bill and do feel it would do the country good to implement it. But with the array of media and social media campaigns bombarding my senses,all this has stopped stirring the activist in me..To my mind these come across as media manufactured images of a cause and sheer propaganda.. With such unwarranted hype and hysteria, the cause of taking a stand against corruption and the anti-establishment civil society movement seems to be fading in the background and what stands out is absurdity at its best! What shines through the entire campaign is a lot of fluff and media hungry people donning the garb of activists, trying to vie for their fifteen seconds of fame. What I saw on television the other day only confirms my thesis, there were a group of struggling musicians dedicating compositions to Anna and the media was only to happy to have them prance and dance around on-screen for the want of more substantial news !!

Perhaps I am a little too idealistic since I hope for a more sensible and sane sort of activism, one that doesn’t offend, shout from the rooftops, make a lot of hullabaloo and yet propagates its viewpoint in a balanced manner, and has desired effects..Is that asking for too much ?